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In the year 1970 there was a terrible earthquake in Peru, my home country, in which around 70,000 people died. At that time I was 17 years old and lived in Lima, the capital of Peru. The epicenter of the quake was in the northeast, in the cordillera of the Andes above the altitude of 10,000 feet (3000 meters), where very tall mountains were forever covered in snow and where there were some isolated towns.

Soon after the disaster there was a general call for volunteers to come and help the thousands of victims that now were without homes or food, and in many cases were dead or trapped alive in the debris.

I was a teenager thirsty for adventure, and together with three friends we decided to answer the call to help and went to the disaster zone. We went by foot almost the entire time in the mountainous area, since the roads were destroyed or in bad condition and were impassible for motorized vehicles, since the geography is very rugged and the climate inhospitable.

Once at our destination, we began our work of helping people to rebuild their homes, remove the debris, etc.

When it was time for us to leave, the roads were still closed, but in any case we decided to leave and to leave on foot, a bold decision that would later give us a huge scare and much suffering.

We put on our backpacks and began the crossing of these mountains, which are very similar to the Alps with much snow and precipices, almost no vegetation, and very cold.

Some neighbors in the town had told us that it wasn’t going to rain, that the weather was going to be more or less good, wrong!! From one moment to the next the sky darkened and a ferocious storm began, with thunder and lightning that came down against the mountains around us. We began to panic, since we were basically without protection, dead with cold, and without adequate equipment for this kind of weather or for emergencies.

Within a few seconds we were soaked with watered and a wind blew furiously in our faces. The situation was indescribable, it felt like a horror movie. The cold was terrible and we didn’t have a place or shelter in which to protect ourselves. We tried to hug each other and curl up together but it wasn’t much help. I felt like I was going to die and I’m sure that my friends felt the same. Nobody spoke, we just shivered.

At some point I began to feel faint, thinking that the end had arrived, and under my breath I made a prayer to commend myself to God, and upon finishing, what a surprise!! I saw light from a lantern lighting up our faces. They were 3 men dressed as mountaineers with their appropriate and adequate equipment. They found us by chance and helped us. I still remember in the middle of that drama and pain feeling the happiness and excitement that surely everyone who is rescued must feel.

Those men put up a small tent as soon as they found us to give us a temporary shelter, although the weather was still very bad. They covered us with blankets and gave us hot drinks. I will always be thankful to those anonymous men who with their solidarity for others saved our lives.

I never heard from them again, and now after more than 40 years I tell this story for the first time.

I can divide all these past events from my childhood in Venezuela into two stages. The first of these experiences is my memory of the radio, the first but most vague in my mind, since I was born in 1947 and could just realize what a radio was at that time, walking between the skirts of the people who worked doing the kitchen cooking and cleaning. Of course it was my mother, and one or another of my older sisters. Among the fun I had at that age, I crawled and walked between their legs with my toy cars, a ball, or any kind of toy. I can vaguely remember the names of two of the renowned radio shows, The Mystery of the Three Towers and Tamacun the Wandering Avenger. As for the TV when it appeared at that time in 1953, we in my family were privileged to have a television, and having one was a source of curiosity for all the neighbors in the development. Children and adults, all wanted to satisfy their curiosity. The house was always full and I’d be happy since I’d never had so many friends. A few of the children’s programs I was permitted to see come to mind. Their names were Sascandil and Escandulfa, two evil witches who tried to destroy the lives of all good people. In comparison there was another of those children’s programs in which the heroes were two characters whose lives were focused on doing good for humanity. I still have in my head the names of those actors who were the protagonists of my childhood dreams, and my character as a mature man, their names are (because they are still alive) Elisa Pareja and Orlando Urdaneta. I can remember exactly which program they were in but I am sure that they were called Banbilandia and Robert and Aquela.

On March 21st at 6pm the DWC of Mountain View there was a film screening of the movie “A Better Life”, starring the Mexican actor Damian and other hispanic artists. This drama talks about the struggle of illegal immigrants in the United States and focuses on the life of a Mexican gardener, an honorable and hard-working man who lives with his adolescent son who he tries to protect from the gangs in the public schools and on the street in the poorer neighborhoods of L.A. His boy is also noble and honest but is about to be recruited by a gang. It turns out that the gardener that originally was a day worker and waited for employment on a street corner with other workers gets the opportunity to buy a truck and so begins his own landscaping business and therefore can help his family, especially his son, who is a little rebellous and distant. A few days after buying the vehicle and while he was working high in a tree, his disloyal assistant steals his truck. In his despair, anxious about losing his work vehicle and with the help of his son, he uses violent and dramatic means to recover his truck instead of reporting the theft. (Personally, I don’t support his methods but I do understand his desperation.) The move is very costly, since he is caught fleeing the scene by the police, who take him to jail for his immediate processing for deportation.

In general, this movie portrays the harsh reality of our Latino community, especially for those that don’t have the necessary documentation to work and live in this country. In many cases they are deprived of their civil rights and unprotected by the laws, including some politicans and authorities that propose, promote and back anti-immigrant laws and programs. For example, “Secure Communities” where the police, taking advantage of racial profiling, stop people to ask for documentation (a racist and discriminatory act in my opinion) just like what happened to the gardener in the movie when he recovers his vehicle.

In summary, I think that in order to solve these problems there needs to be a comprehensive Migration Reform as soon as possible in order to avoid further abuse against immigrants, especially for those from the Latino community that come to this country only to work honorably, help their families and contribute to the social and economic growth of this great country.

On January 28th, a big step was taken towards the reinstatement of civil rights, especially for the latin community. On this day, a large group met in the cathedral in San Francisco, California. Approximately 2,000 people came from different pro-immigration organizations and groups that defend civil rights throughout the Bay Area such as PICO-PIA (People Improving Communities through Organizing/Peninsula Interfaith Action).

This meeting was to protest the federal program called S-COMM “Secure Communities” that was approved by the state of California. With its subtle name it’s actually an openly anti-immigration program used by ICE to deport and separate families from our community. The program works like this: the local police take advantage of racial profiling to ask for documentation from people to verify their legal status and check if they are undocumented. Then they would be detained by ICE and begin the immediate process of deportation, an injust and cruel response.

To my great suprise, many religious from San Francisco like the Archbishop Niederauer supported our just cause and our voices of protest were heard and will continue to be heard. !!!!SEGUIMOS EN LA LUCHA!!!!

This is supposed to be a letter to myself, but as I don’t have the slightest idea how to send myself a letter, I will convert it into a collection of memories, of unfulfilled dreams, and achieved goals. Here I go:

When I was 16 years old I had the big idea or dream of becoming a helicopter pilot for the air force or the navy of my country. I liked going to see these contraptions at a military base that was close to my house. But as all things young, rebellious and undisciplined, I didn’t pay the price to achieve this goal, since it required a high degree of discipline and dedication to become a certified pilot. Afterward I wanted to serve my country through voluntary military service. I enjoyed that a lot since I met many people and saw almost everything throughout my country. I have many good memories from then. Oh, and I met many, many women, hehehehe…

One of my resolutions for this new year is to change my eating habits, and so I have decided to lose weight through a simple but effective diet. I believe this is very important for me, as it helps to keep me in good health, and also fight off illness and of course, to be in good shape to carry out the work that I’m given.

One of the first things that I will do are morning exercises as this will complement the balanced diet that I will follow in order to achieve my New Years resoultion. As far as food goes, I will eat more vegetables (such as in salads), fresh fruits and more fish, which doesn’t have much fat, and is a good source of nutrients for my body.

I have decided to eat less pasta, less fatty red meat, “enriched” flour, sweets and pure sugar, etc.

Hi, how are you doing? Today I want to talk to you a bit about what music means to me. For me, music is freedom of expression and capturing thoughts in art, an amazing experience without limits. It’s a combination of sound and time.

Music has always been part of the history of human kind. Even before humans existed, God had created music, and now music appears in every generation with a different rhythm.

I grew up listening to rock. With the influence of my siblings, I listened to bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, and other classics like the Rolling Stones, Beatles, and many others. As a teenager I came to live in California, where I saw and listened to many classics and bands from the time, since in Mexico that wasn’t possible. This hadn’t been possible due to what happened after the Festival of Rock and Wheels in 1971. The festival took place just outside of Mexico City. For three days, bands like Nuevo Mexico, Ritual, and Javier Baiz and Alex Lora’s The Tri played. The UNAM (university) also presented Tommy by The Who. After all of this, rock in Mexico was repressed. Rock concerts and radio stations were restricted or not permitted until 1978 until a different government came into power and the doors were opened to music.

Nowadays all the great musical groups stop by to play in Mexico. One of the experiences that I had here was to have gone to the 25 Years of Woodstock Festival in New York. Woodstock was the greatest festival of rock, with its first edition in 1969. I was part of the second generation, a really amazing, crazy festival. Around 25 bands played during three days, actually more like four days, before a public of 500,000 people. I don’t remember all the bands, but among them were Metalica, Bob Dylan, Santana, Traffic, and many more.

With the passing of the years and more life experiences, my tastes in music have changed—not the core, but the context, ideas, and messages are now different. I have learned that everything that exists was created by God and that He likes music, that there is a lot of fusion within Christian music. I continue to be impressed day after day by the many people who have been give such talent by God to reach out and call to people’s emotions through music. You can never forget what you have lived in life, but God also is in His praise…..